According to documentarian Brad Abrahams, the key to any good conspiracy theory, whether it be anti-vaxxers or the idea that all mountains are vestiges of the lost civilization of Tartaria, is a core of truth, “ten to twenty percent,” to which the believer can cling. But as he shows in his new documentary, Gimme Truth, that anchor won’t protect you from being caught up in the darker tides of fringe beliefs. He explained, “You’re running from Big Pharma to the arms of someone who wants to sell you cyanide to cure your cancer.”
The only documentary screening at this year’s Fantastic Fest, Gimme Truth is co-directed by Abrahams (Love and Saucers), a Canadian transplant to Austin, and fellow Canadian Simon Ennis (director of South by Southwest 2024 tabletop gaming documentary The Hobby). Even though they knew each other from film school at Ryerson University in Toronto, they’d never co-directed with each other. Yet when they started developing Gimme Truth the pair realized quickly that it was the only safe and sensible way to make the film.
Ennis said, “Almost all of our previous documentaries, we spend time with people in marginalized subcultures, so we’re used to spending intimate time with people whose views diverge from the mainstream. We’ve acclimatized ourselves to it and to telling their stories in a way that is sensitive and nuanced.”
But with Gimme Truth in particular “it really helped to have a buddy,” Ennis explained. “Both for ease of getting access and making the connections without having to manage a crew. Because you have to be very sensitive as you’re talking to even the potential subjects in this movie. Brad and I have a lot of background with it, so the two of us together, we could trust one another to be the two people with the cameras.”
“It also helped to share the psychological load,” Abrahams added, “because it’s a lot. Being in those spaces, mostly the conferences where you’re just bombarded with sights, sounds, beliefs, things that make you very uncomfortable, and sometimes it would be nice to tap out for a little bit.”
The conferences became an important part of the research process, such as meeting Mikki Willis, the man behind the “plandemic” COVID conspiracy, as he premiered his film Plandemic: The Musical, and running into Justin Kohn of anti-E.T. activists Allies of Humanity. Of the latter, Ennis said, “When we meet him in the film, that’s actually how we met him, and we found his story interesting, we got to know him and like him, and then we got to go to Marin County where he lives and spend a day with him.”
Yet the duo were also serious about protecting potential subjects and didn’t just film anyone that they met just because of their strange beliefs. Abrahams said, “We had a very strict filter for mental illness, because there’s so much of it in this world, and if we got a whiff of it, even if we’d filmed someone, we’d be like, alright, we’re obviously stepping back.”
Many of the conspiracy theorists featured just have a non-mainstream viewpoint, but the film inevitably intersects with more radical groups, including QAnon and January 6ers. Yet while the pair were never in real danger, Abrahams said they were undoubtedly “adjacent” to it. There was often pushback, especially at conventions, from people who worried about being misinterpreted or mocked, and many of these groups have a deep mistrust of anything they see as the mainstream media.
“Which we’re not,” Ennis said. “We’re independent filmmakers.”
Ennis noted that they’d both had their own “conspiracy theory journey” when they were in film school, “but when we got into it, it was funny and a little more inconsequential in a way or at least speaking some truth to power. But around COVID – or around Obama, really – it got dark and dangerous and sinister.”
As for why that’s happened, Abrahams said, “Well, just look where we are. Without any conspiracy theorizing going on or conspiracy culture, we’d be in the same broken world we’re in now because of corruption, war, bigotry, all of that which seems to be coming to a head. At least it feels that way right now. The more chaos and fragmentation you have, I think it triggers a lot of trauma that people had earlier in their lives, and creates this dark, swirling vortex where they’re looking for meaning, to put these pieces into a puzzle that makes sense for them.”
“And mainstream political beliefs are getting darker,” Ennis added, “so why wouldn’t they in more fringe communities?”
